The Promotion of Body Positivity in Ballet

The ideal female Western ballet body is an image that persists as the norm of what a ballerina should look like. This ideal includes a slender woman with long legs and arms, a small head, little to no bust line, and a short torso. It is an image that continues to be synonymous with success and beauty as a ballet dancer. Social and historical research indicated that this long held belief and damaging ideal pervades the way past, and present ballet dancers view themselves, their bodies, as well as their performance in other dance forms such as modern and jazz dance. This paper will focus on Western ballet relative to the impact the ideal ballet body has on its participants and on dance in general. This ideal is still very much a part of today\u27s ballet and concert dance culture in the west. In addition, this paper will also offer that positive influences do exist that challenge the persistent falsities spread by this ideal and argue that more education needs to be presented to teachers and students alike to stop the dangerous implications of this ideal. As a result, such education could support much needed body positivity in the realm of ballet and in the overall Western concert dance world